


Two Man Tent

by Only_by_Night



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: F/F, Pupcake - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 10:15:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3646497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only_by_Night/pseuds/Only_by_Night
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delia helps Patsy and Fred take the Cubs camping for the weekend. A little tent can get pretty cold overnight and the two nurses have to keep warm somehow. You know what you're getting here. (Just a fleeting Cameo from Fred and a glimpse of Tom, this is all PupCake. )</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Man Tent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DeliverMePatsy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeliverMePatsy/gifts).



> For Tumblr user DeliverMePatsy, from an anonymous prompt sent to her blog: Sharing a tent at Cub camp.  
> No Beta read, so apologies for any mistakes- let me know in the comments and I'll correct anything jarring.

It was still chilly for April, probably too cold for camping, but everyone had arranged for a night off and these things weren’t so easily organised. Anyway, Fred and Patsy agreed that a little bit of adverse weather was character building.

Patsy Mount leaned on wall by the community centre steps waiting for the pack to arrive. Tom had already brought the minibus round and gone to look in on some parishioners and she wasn’t quite sure where Fred had got to, but if she was honest, it wasn’t either of them she was forcing herself to resist glancing up the road for.  
Her chest fluttered at the sound of a woman’s confident tread- sensible nurse’s shoes- but she pretended to intently study the OS map in her hand, counting footsteps until she was sure they were headed towards her.

“Morning, Pats!” That Welsh lilt that never failed to bring an involuntary smile to Patsy’s face. She looked up, straight into Delia’s eyes, and noticed, like she always did, that they always seemed to be shining. If she’d ever watched Delia looking at anyone else, she might have realised that the diminutive nurse only lit up for her. Only, and always.

“Oh, hello, Delia,” Patsy replied, “I hope you packed for frost, I’m afraid the weather’s against us today.”  
“I’m sure we’ll stay warm enough,” Delia said, with a hint of mischief, “One way or another.” Patsy looked up sharply at that, eyebrow quirking up in her trademark expression. She gave Delia a firm stare, but Delia merely tilted her head and batted her eyelashes innocently until Patsy couldn’t help but give that lopsided smile, equal parts affection and scepticism.  
She was about to add something else when they were interrupted by Fred’s cheery “Morning ladies!” as he bustled up the cobbled street. “Sorry I’m late Nurse Mount, I had to give the Nonnatus boiler a bit of attention before we set off, looks like another cold snap’s about to set in.” Even as he spoke a strong breeze caught Patsy’s scarf and nearly carried it off, but Delia snagged it out of the air before the redhead had time to react. She tried to hand it back but, noticing her friend’s shiver at the sudden chill, Patsy instead looped the burgundy scarf around the shorter woman’s neck. “You take it Deels,” she said, “I’d hate for you to catch a chill.”

Soon enough the rowdy cubs arrived, all of them excited to be getting out of Poplar for two days, and they set off towards Epping forest with Tom leading the sing-song from the wheel of the minibus. Patsy startled poor Fred a little and sent Delia off into peals of giggles by whispering some of the less family-friendly versions of their camping songs she’d heard while working on Men’s Surgical. It turned out the after-effects of anaesthetic made the men of East London a little less mindful of ladies’ presence and rather more inclined to serenade.

After setting up camp, and thankful for Delia being on St. John Ambulance duty after a number of tent-pitching injuries, Akela and companion sat together watching Fred try to build a stone circle for a fire. They had offered to help while the boys were off, ostensibly ‘gathering firewood’ but mostly just climbing trees and hiding behind bushes to jump out at each other, but he had insisted that he knew a particular method and had to do it himself. Their makeshift log bench wasn’t quite wide enough for two, so they were forced to sit rather close, knees pressed together, but they made do with the situation, not being complainers either of them. Until the fire was going they couldn’t even make a well-earned cup of tea, so there was little else to do but keep an ear out in case any of the Cubs got into bother.

“We used to go camping every Bank Holiday,” Delia began softly. “Up in the valley. We’d set the fire going, my mam would put soup on to boil and then my dad would sing and even the birds would listen. He’s got a fine voice my dad. His male voice choir is known for miles around where Pembridge.” She glanced at Patsy who smiled gently back, encouraging her to continue. “I’d love to show you it one day, it’s so beautiful up there, Pats, and so peaceful. So long as the weather's clear. The deer will come right up to you if you sit for long enough and not a soul in the world to watch you, or judge.” Patsy gave a wistful laugh. “Only the foxes there to mind whether you foxtrot?”  
“Exactly!” Delia rejoined. “As long as you didn’t mind hiking three hours or so for cigarettes and coffee every few days, you could be quite content out there.” The both sat silent for a second, contemplating the idea. “Although at this rate, we might die of cold before we get a chance!”

“Hmm, I’d better see what’s become of my pack,” Patsy rose to her feet, letting Delia tangle their fingers together for a moment. “Could you lend Fred a hand with that fire circle? Or I rather fear there’ll be no tea, or supper for that matter, and I did promise the boys we’d learn some campfire cooking for their badges.” Delia held Patsy’s hand for a second longer, purely to help her get to her feet, no ulterior motive and then sauntered over to where Fred was perspiring a few yards away, ably arranging stones without any need for guidance. Patsy stood for a minute longer watching with pride how capable Delia was, not with Patsy’s own brisk efficiency, but with an easiness born of a practical childhood spent outdoors. Then with a deep breath she set off into the forest calling for her wayward pack.

It was nearing eleven when the boys finally settled down. After the various singed fingertips and nettle stings hand been tended to, and the more sensitive ones had stopped crying (Fred’s fireside ghost stories had been a little too vivid for some of the smaller boys) and the fire was carefully extinguished under Nurse Mount’s stern supervision, they had finally dispatched the Cubs to their tents and shared a sneaky cigarette on the edge of camp before turning in too. 

“Do you know your constellations, Pats?” Delia had asked her, as they stood huddled under a fir tree. Patsy had shaken her head and exhaled a stream of smoke up into the night sky. “My dad would always point them out to us,” she explained “before we’d go to bed on a camping trip.” Plucking the cigarette and from between Patsy’s fingers and taking a drag she’d pointed the glowing tip to the sky. “See that there? That’s Orion, the hunter. He’s got three stars slung across his belt see, like a sheriff” Patsy got caught on the little break Delia put in ‘hunter’; that accent could talk her round to pretty much anything, not that she’d let the brunette know it.

Then they were in their tent, thinking about wriggling out of uniforms and into pyjamas, in the closest proximity they’d ever been really. They sat, each on their sleeping bags, just watching each other, tension ringing in the air. Patsy cleared her throat. “I just have to brush my teeth. Back in a tick!” She grabbed her toothbrush and water canteen and ducked out of the tent, a little breathless. “Keep your cool, Patience.” She told herself, before noticing that it wasn’t just cool, there was actually frost forming on the grass. She finished up quickly and barely hesitated at the threshold before squeezing back through the opening and zipping it behind her.

Delia was already lying in her sleeping bag, though she'd left it unzipped, and she was watching her companion with an unreadable expression. Patsy suddenly felt a little self-conscious as she shrugged off her coat. She’d changed in front of Trixie countless times of course, and shared a room with other girls nearly as long as she could remember. But even though they’d seen her, none of them were watching her, like Delia was now. She set her beret and scarf carefully at the foot of her sleeping bag, then her belt and shoes, and began to unbutton the green dress, looking straight ahead, but acutely aware of blue eyes on her.

As she reached the middle button something started niggling at her, something slightly amiss. She only had one button left when she realised what it was- Delia was holding her breath. Undoing the final button she let her eyes meet the brunette’s at last. Gazes locked, Patsy slipped the dress off her shoulders and at the sight of smooth, creamy skin the Welsh nurse shakily released the air from her lungs and pushed herself up on one arm. In the narrow tent they were no more than two feet apart. Patsy caught her bottom lip between her teeth and hesitated a few seconds, before lifting her hips and sliding the dress off entirely. Delia swallowed hard, reverently taking in bare skin. She sat forward further, till she could feel Patsy’s breath on her face and kept leaning in until their lips were pressed together. Murmuring reassuring nothings she pulled herself closer, resting her hands on Patsy’s waist.

Delia broke their kiss suddenly and pulled back to look at her girlfriend’s face. Patsy whined in disappointment and then her face crumpled in concern. “What’s the matter? Would you rather we didn't?” Delia shook her head hurriedly. “But Pats, you’re freezing,” she said, gripping the redhead’s hips tighter, to demonstrate. “I can’t feel the cold right now, Delia,” Patsy replied, laughing, mostly in relief, and stealing another kiss quickly. “It won’t do, Nurse Mount,” Delia mock-admonished. “You’d better finish changing.” With that Delia boldly hooked her fingers under the hem of Patsy’s stocking and rolled in down. Patsy’s laughter caught in her throat at that, and she was biting her lip again as she watched the smaller woman carefully remove both stockings, and run her hands up newly bared shins, letting them rest just above her knees. The heat from Delia’s palms seemed to blaze against Patsy’s bare thighs, and though she was shivering, as much from trepidation as from the cold, she was starting to generate plenty of heat of her own.

Watching those sky blue eyes grow dark spurred Delia on to dig the tips of her fingernails, kept short and neat like all good nurses, into pale skin and drag them slowly down, then trail them back up, relishing the ragged breaths she was drawing from her usually composed companion. Patsy was transfixed by the red lines rising up on her creamy redhead's complexion. Visible evidence that this was really happening, not just in her unacknowledged furtive moments of imagination. She gently traced each line with her fingertip, following the paths Delia had laid, relishing the frisson of nerve endings.

Snapping out of it to lean in again and kiss Delia deeply this time, the midwife stretched her long legs either side of her girlfriend and pulled herself closer. She ran her tongue across Delia's lower lip and felt a sudden thrill in her stomach at the little noises of approval she could elicit. Encouraged, she began nibbling at the brunette's lip and caught hold of the hem of her pyjama top, wishing momentarily that the Welshwoman was in her customary nightie instead; no matter how impractical that might be for a tent in the forest in early April. As she worked her fingers underneath the fabric though Delia gasped and pulled away sharply. Before she had time to be alarmed though Delia caught both of Patsy’s hands between her own and brought them to her lips to breathe hot air over frigid fingers. She admonished her lover with a stern eyebrow raise. “You’ll catch a chill.”

Patsy put on her most matronly expression. "You know the most reliable way to get warm, the way the Arctic explorers survived, was to share body heat. It's the only truly effective means of surviving that cold. More effective than a fire, in fact." Her tone made it clear she wasn't to be argued with.

"Very well, Nurse Mount. If that's your medical opinion..." Delia smiled and demurely laid back on her sleeping bag, daring Patsy with her eyes, her challenging smirk. They stared at each other, in the dim lantern glow until, almost inaudibly, she whispered "Come and light me up."

Patience Elizabeth Mount was rarely daunted, or overwhelmed, but just for a moment, sat on a groundsheet in her underwear in the middle of the woods during a particularly cold April, looking down at Delia Busby laying stretched out before her, quivering with anticipation, she just had to pause and take it in. Almost unconsciously she reached up and pulled the pins from her hair and did not think to equate Delia’s reverential sigh with the titian mane that unfurled to frame her impeccably sculpted cheekbones. She really had no clue how strikingly beautiful she was, how regal, and Delia loved her all the more for it.

Heart hammering so hard she was afraid it might wake up the camp, she prowled across the scant distance on her hands and knees, like a lioness, till she was hovering above the smaller woman, eyes locked, both breathless. Delia reached up to cup Patsy’s face and bring her in for a kiss, and with the other hand on the small of the midwife’s back, she gently guided her down to lie pressed together and pulled the sleeping bag back over them both.

Now the full length of their bodies were touching, Patsy’s knees and elbows on either side of Delia’s small frame, and the heat radiating from each woman’s core was undeniable. Almost reflexively Patsy gripped Delia’s thigh between her own and rocked her hips, letting Delia feel for the first time how damp her underwear had become. Delia felt a rush of her own in response and wanted to say so, but she was suddenly lost for words. There was so much they tried not to say aloud. Both women had always believed actions spoke louder anyway, so instead of speaking Delia let her hands do the talking; first stroking one down from Patsy’s face, flushed now, across her collarbone and down to cup her breast; then the other, over the curve of her hip to squeeze a derriere thoroughly toned from hours of riding an NHS-issue bicycle. 

Patsy pushed herself up a little on her elbow so she could watch Delia’s face as the nurse rolled her thumb around a hardening nipple and swallowed hard. With her other hand Patsy gripped Delia’s thigh and raised the other woman’s knee so that her loose shorts rode right up to her hips, taking the opportunity to push herself forward till she was firmly insinuated in the hot, inviting cleft between her lovers thighs. At the long-awaited contact with her most sensitive spot Delia threw her head back, biting down the appreciative sound that rose in her throat. Pushing her advantage Patsy leant down to lavish light, wet kisses all the way from Delia’s collarbone to the little hollow below her earlobe, then gently caught the earlobe between her teeth. The sensation had an effervescent effect on Delia, fizzing through all her nerve endings, lighting up all her responsive places like a switchboard. She heard Patsy gasp, right by her ear, as the redhead became aware of just how much the brunette was responding to her attentions.

Unable to keep still Delia writhed up, seeking more contact, more friction, and rocked her hips until Patsy began to reciprocate, wet pussies thrust against thighs, pulsing in time with each other’s rocking hips. They were panting almost in unison now, the precarious tingling sensation radiating out from throbbing clits, through tightening abdomens and sparkling out to extremities. Delia clutched at Patsy desperately, heedless now of how deep her fingertips sank into that fine behind, just wanting them to be as close as they could get. Patsy lavished ever messier kisses across the brunette’s throat as her concentration dissolved into escalating arousal. They were both shuddering and grinding into each other frantically, beyond words, urging each other over the edge. It was the redhead’s teeth, grazing against her neck that finished Delia off and sent her weightlessly adrift into a climax that blanked out all sound for long, blissful seconds. She opened her eyes to find sky blue looking back, tears welling up. “You’re so beautiful,” Patsy could barely get the words out, disbelief in her tone. Before Delia could respond Patsy buried her face in the other woman’s chest, overcome by her own culmination. As the tension seeped out of her limbs she let herself rest fully on her smaller lover and the contentment of being surrounded by the woman she loved, feeling the redhead’s full weight on top of her, was as close as Delia could imagine to fulfilment.

Delia stroked Patsy’s hair tenderly, noticing how it looked burnished in the low light, and waited for their breathing to settle. For her part Patsy kept her head on Delia’s chest and gripped her waist tightly, showing that rare vulnerability that she would never reveal in daylight. As their heart rates steadied and the emotional wave that had caught the midwife unawares began to recede she started stroking her fingers up and down Delia’s side, along the seam of the hopelessly pyjama jacket. Delia hummed her approval, tracing her fingertips along Patsy’s forearm in reply.

With that famously unbounded energy Patsy sat up, leaving them uncovered again. Her eyes were glittering, all hint of tears gone and she clearly had an idea. “Tell me the stars again, Deels?” She caught Delia’s hand and raised it to her own midriff, gently tracing Delia’s fingertip over the light dusting of freckles that could only be seen right up close. Delia laughed, charmed by this playful side of Patsy she’d barely seen. “Well,” she began, stroking each freckle in turn and watching goosebumps surface at her touch, “This here, this one’s Artemis, the goddess of chastity and nature.” Patsy raised an eyebrow, trademark smile sneaking up one side of her mouth. “And this one, see, this is Boudicca, the fearsome warrior queen.” Delia’s pronunciation of ‘fearsome’ brought a swell of affection from her lover. The nurse brushed her fingers over a faint silver scar as she spoke, obviously old, and made a note to ask about it another day.

“Warrior queen,” Patsy repeated, “I think I like that one. Conquering the land and taking what she pleased.” This last was delivered more as a question, head tilted and suddenly Delia was short of oxygen again, stomach flipping in taut trepidation as she nodded her assent. Carefully, but with complete assurance, Patsy took Delia’s wrist and pinned it to the ground above her head, breasts inches from Delia’s face as she leaned over to pin the other arm too, holding both wrists down with her left hand. “They’d set fires in the villages they vanquished.” She added breathily. Delia could barely hear over the pounding of her heart in her ears as Patsy ran her hand along the inside of the Welsh woman’s thigh up to where she most desperately wanted her. With her customary precision Patsy pressed her fingertips over Delia’s throbbing clit and began to massage through the fabric. The whole world contracted to three digits making deft circles around a tight bud of nerve endings, making each one sing. As Delia moaned with gratification Patsy gently shushed her, incrementally speeding up each time she heard a sound, making keeping quiet increasingly hard to do. As the brunette grew more vocal her girlfriend grew more bold, sliding her fingers under the fabric to tease at her entrance, slipping fingertips in deeper with each pass and using the slickness to intensify the sensation around Delia’s now swollen clit.

“Please.”

That one word was perhaps the most wonderful thing Patsy had ever heard and she obliged with composure that belied her internal quaking at broaching this uncharted territory. Steadily, without rushing or hesitating, she pulled Delia’s underwear aside and slid her fingers inside her, only her held breath giving away the tumult she was feeling. As one they gasped at the sensation, of finally connecting in the most intimate way, and Patsy began to flex her fingers, triggering staccato tremors in her girlfriend- already hopelessly stimulated.

A bead of sweat formed in the hollow at the base of Delia's throat, like a single pearl, and Patsy kissed it away as she thrust deeper, tasting salt and sweet on fair skin. She angled her hand so that the heel of her palm kept steady pressure against the brunette's most sensitive point and Delia clutched at Patsy's shoulders, urging her on, almost beyond words. Her eyes sought out cornflower blue as she got closer to the edge, wanting reassurance. "Stay with me, Pats." She gasped out, not quite what she meant to say, but Patsy understood. "I'm with you, Delia," she whispered back. "I'm right here. It's just us, you and me. I'm staying, I promise." At that, feeling safe, and looking at the beautiful woman who owned her completely, Delia let herself fall, waves of sensation washing through her body. Patsy stilled her hand as the last tremors spent themselves.

Patsy gazed down at her lover, almost unable to believe that this woman was hers. Usually so neat but now dishevelled and abandoned, cheeks pink with exertion and a sleepy satisfied smile slowly radiating across her face. She began gently to disentangle herself but Delia, already slipping into blissful sleep, caught hold of her and resisted until the redhead gave up and just laid down with her; heat radiating where they were pressed together and sweat rapidly chilling on her bare skin as the feverish ardour faded and they slept, in each other’s arms.

***

“Sleep alright did you, Nurse Busby?” Fred’s cheery bluster signalled the start of the first full day of camp and Patsy listened to them make small talk as she finished pinning her hair into place and carefully fixed her beret. She was back in Akela stance and ready to set the Cubs to work, but she was hiding a secret smile (and a few lingering red marks) at how easy it had been, really. She took a moment longer to compose herself, then climbed out of the tent to join them. 

“Ah, morning, Nurse Mount!” Fred greeted her. “We were just saying how it seems to be a bit brighter today. I hope you managed to keep warm last night” Before she could respond however a sneezing fit gripped her, to Fred and Delia’s surprise. “That sounds like the start of a nasty cold,” Fred was concerned, “You must have caught a chill after all.” He said. “You should make sure she keeps warm tonight Nurse Busby!” 

Delia assured him she’d do her utmost, and they stifled their giggles as they went to wake the Cubs and make the most of the great outdoors for another twenty four hours.


End file.
